'Go slow' on Karmapa

Feb 7, 2011

Category: Police Raid Jan 2011

New Delhi, Feb. 6: The Himachal Pradesh government has been told to “go slow” on the Karmapa case by the highest offices in Delhi, sources said today in an indication that the matter should be treated with utmost care by the state government.

The communication suggested that the Prime Minister’s Office had taken a final view on the matter. The sources said that the central agencies working on several cases of benami property and land deals managed by the Karmapa’s office may now “go slow”.

Reports from Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and Himachal indicated that support for Ugyen Trinley Dorje, whom Delhi does not consider the Karmapa, had spilled on to the streets. “It seems the government has backed off because of pressure,” said a source.

Although the government has not officially ruled out arresting the Karmapa after Chinese yuans amounting to several crores were found in his Dharamshala monastery, fissures in the Congress surfaced on how to deal with the Karmapa and his aides.

In November 2010, Congress leader Virbhadra Singh and three other MPs — among them former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Mukut Mithi — wrote to Union home minister P. Chidambaram seeking removal of travel restrictions on Tai Situ Rinpoche, the third-highest in the Kagyu order and the principal supporter of Dorje.

“A formal order must be passed by the ministry of home affairs cancelling all earlier circulars by which restrictions were imposed on the free movement of the Rinpoche, both within and outside the country,” the letter said.

Delhi is highly suspicious of Tai Situ, who was in China from 1982-90 and is believed to be extremely close to the leadership there. Intelligence sources revealed that when he returned to India in 1991, he did not obtain the No Objection on Return to India permit from the government mandatory for refugees.

Tai Situ is understood to have conducted the ceremony in Tibet that put Dorje on the throne as the Karmapa.